Mr. Seamus McCarthy:

Can I just finish the point? When we do our scheduling, we do it on the basis that the financial statements as presented are correct, and that our work will effectively be focused on validating that, and checking that what they have presented is correct. The difficulty we run into is when there are errors in the financial statements, or particularly if there are propriety matters or report matters that cause a concern. The process then gets slowed down. In that situation, we have carried out the audit but it takes a long time to get follow-up explanations. It is difficult for us to do it right in a very narrow timeframe. We take a very wide view of the business of an organisation.

We consider propriety issues that may not be considered to the same degree by a private sector auditor doing standard financial statements and the question arises of whether the financial statements were correct. That creates a complication for us, slows the process and knocks out other schedules, for instance, if we are scheduled to do an audit and find they are not ready we may not have anybody else lined up immediately. It takes a week or so and we lose time. There are many aspects to this. We try to assist and to be as helpful as possible but if somebody misses their slot, for whatever reason, we cannot necessarily go back and do it. We also cannot walk away from a client. If a client has a problem we are stuck with one another. A private sector auditor would say they will not do this but we do not have that luxury.

There are several sectors where the three-month submission date is not actually the prescribed date.